Piper Jaffray: Apple Gets $18 Per Month Per iPhone

Apple Inc. is receiving royalties of US$18 per month per iPhone from AT&T, according to Piper Jaffray analyst Gene Munster. Carried out over the twenty four month period Apple uses to account for that revenue, Mr. Munster estimated that Apple will receive $432 per iPhone per subscriber from AT&T.

Silicon Alley Insiderreported that Mr. Munster arrived at his new estimates based on Appleis quarterly conference call with analysts on Monday. He took the $118 million in revenue recorded by Apple during the September quarter and the approximately 1.15 million iPhones that have been activated through AT&T since the end of the July quarter to reach his figure.

The Insider also noted that Citibank analyst Richard Gardner looked at the same numbers and arrived at a figure of $12 per month per iPhone. If his numbers are correct, that would represent $288 over the course of a 24-month contract.

Apple has acknowledged that there is a revenue sharing agreement in place with AT&T, but has not revealed the terms of that agreement, hence the close scrutiny from analysts.

*In the interest of full disclosure, the author holds a small share in AAPL stock that was not an influence in the creation of this article. ?